Hospitals leave patient data vulnerable by simply throwing out thousands of pages of private documents instead of shredding them, a new study warns. 

Researchers at the University of Toronto and St Michael's Hospital retrieved 1,300 lbs of paper from recycling bins at five hospitals and found that more than 2,500 sheets contained private patient information.

As hospitals transition to digital record-keeping, patients and their advocates have become increasingly concerned that hackers could access their data.